Make a vintage style wedding bouquet

To save money, I am embarking on the massive task of making most of the decorations for my wedding. The first things on my list are the wedding flowers. Now, I could have gone to a florist to buy a bunch of lovely real flowers a day before my wedding, but I wanted a vintage looking bouquet that I could make in advance and also have to keep forever. This bouquet took about 3 hours to make, and cost me about £25. It’s about 30cm in diametre, so any smaller ones, you can make quicker and will be cheaper as you need less materials.

Step one – the handle

Take four wooden skewers, and stick them in to the centre of the oasis ball. Each scewer needs to be pointing slightly in to the centre so that they make a handle shape. Once the four skewers are securely in, roll up some paper (I used a magazine cover) and pack it into the four skewers. Roll some tape around the skewer ‘handle’ to secure it all once and for all.

Once your handle is made, you need to get your rose heads and wire out. To attach the roses to the ball, start by threading the wires through each rose head and secure the wire at the top of the rose by sticking it back in so it traps a few petals to secure itself. If it is hard to thread the wire through the roses, get a thick pin or knitting needle and make a hole to thread the wire through. Once all your rose heads are threaded on to the wire, start to poke the wire in to the oasis ball and build the roses up so they sit neatly next to each other.

Once your oasis ball is filled with roses down to about 8 cm away from the handle, you will notice that there are a few gaps where the roses haven’t sat neatly next to each other. This is when you can fill the gaps with feathers and diamontes like I did, or with other little bursts of flowers. I secured the flowers and feathers with pins and wire but tucked it down as far as I could so that the wire was not visible.

Because the roses are only placed about three quarters over the oasis ball, I added some ostrich feathers and artificial ivy to cover any left over oasis or messy bits. I also wrapped some ribbon round the handle and secured it with florists tape and double sided tape to be sure!

The bouquet is very light considering it’s quite large, and I have had nothing but compliments for it. People are mostly impressed with the fact that it is artificial and cost so little … oh, and that I made it!